


Failsafe

by beeftony



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 18:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16815895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beeftony/pseuds/beeftony
Summary: Catra and Entrapta formulate a plan based on a piece of First Ones' tech... after it traps them together in Entrapta's lab.





	Failsafe

It was a rather childish drawing, excused somewhat by the fact that it had been drawn by children. Though imperfect in its portrayal of things like background, perspective, and basic anatomy, the pure, unbridled imagination of it all shined through regardless. It depicted two figures flying, unassisted by any sort of aircraft, raining destruction down upon a forest. The horrors that they had imagined inhabiting the Whispering Woods were not so frightening when rendered in crayon, with their tongues lolling out and big x’s where their eyes should be.

Things had played out differently in real life, of course, but at least that last part of the drawing had come true, in its own way. Catra glared at the paper as she walked down the hall, before crumpling it into a wad and tossing it to the side. She’d found it while cleaning out her previous quarters after her promotion to Second in Command afforded her a much better living space. Just when she finally thought she’d erased all remnants of Adora’s memory from her surroundings, something else popped up like a bad penny.

She groaned and continued her rounds. The sound of excited typing and giggling could be heard a short distance away, and before long she entered a large room that had been converted into a laboratory. Half-stripped bots and other spare parts lined the tables, along with a motley collection of tools, note-paper, and absurdly tiny sweets. At the far end of the chamber, in front of an enormous computer, Entrapta was lost in her work, oblivious to almost everything around her. And yet, she still noticed Catra’s arrival, waving at her with a piece of her prehensile hair.

Catra heard skittering behind her, and stepped quickly to the side as the Princess’ pet robot marched into the room, extending a limb towards her and passing something into her hair.

“Oh hey, Catra. Emily says you dropped this.” She tossed it over her shoulder, and Catra caught it on instinct, discovering to her chagrin that it was the same paper she’d disposed of earlier.

“I didn’t drop it,” she replied, hurling it to the ground. “I threw it away.”

The robot dubbed Emily obediently picked up the paper, then handed it back to Entrapta, who passed it to her again. And she caught it without thinking, again.

“You shouldn’t litter. Say, do you have a litter box? I’m curious how far the cat thing goes.”

“I am _not_ answering that.” She stuffed the paper into a stray pocket. “Fine. I’ll incinerate this later.”

“Suit yourself. So what brings you to my lab?”

“Checking up on things.” She moved closer, standing to her left, while Emily flanked the Princess on the right. “What are you working on?”

“Well, besides that data crystal you recovered for me, there was a piece of First Ones’ tech I’d been working on for a while.” She motioned to a small green crystal that vaguely resembled a sawblade, with visible cracks that had been carefully welded into one solid piece. “I just got it put back together and I was about to run some tests. Wanna see?”

She crossed her arms and shrugged. “Sure.”

Grabbing the crystal with her hair, Entrapta inserted it into a port on the computer, then began clacking away at the keyboard again. “Now, the code in this can be a teensy bit malicious, so I’m working with a few more safeguards this time around. Emily, if you wouldn’t mind waiting outside?”

The robot was unable to nod, but turned around and skittered out of the lab, waiting just outside the door.

Catra raised an eyebrow, and the Princess lowered her welding visor before explaining. “Last time I tried plugging this in, it turned all my bots super aggressive. It even made She-Ra act a little weird. She transformed back into Adora and got so spacy even I looked put together by comparison.”

“Well now I’m definitely interested,” she said, leaning in. “You think you can weaponize it?”

“That’s the plan. I just have to—” She was cut off by a loud, blaring alarm. The crystal turned red, followed by all of the computer monitors. The door slammed closed, and Catra could hear a heavy lock sliding in behind it. A flurry of information whizzed by on the computer screens, then everything went black. “Crap.”

She heard something crackle next to her, and Entrapta held up a glowstick with her hair, passing it in front fo the computer and peering around the room.

“What the hell just happened?

“The failsafe kicked in.”

“Huh?”

“Before you walked in, I was isolating this computer from the rest of the network so it wouldn’t infect the whole system like last time,” she elaborated. “When the code from the artifact tried to gain root access, the failsafe I programmed cut power to the system and quarantined the virus. It’ll take a few minutes to lock it down and reboot.”

“Pretend I don’t understand anything you just said,” replied Catra. “Then dumb it down some more.”

“The system shut down to protect itself,” she translated. “It won’t start up again until it’s safe. In the meantime, we’re stuck here.”

“Yeah, I gathered that when the door locked.”

“So you did understand.” She caught a glint of cunning in the Princess’ eye, and saw her smirk. “You play dumb, but I think you know way more than you let on.”

Catra huffed, crossing her arms. “I just don’t like it when you talk all that science-y mumbo-jumbo. Makes my head spin.”

“But you figured out what I meant,” she replied. “Even before I simplified it for you.”

“Whatever.”

“Just be glad we’re not fighting a crazy killer robot right now,” she said. “With all the upgrades I’ve made to Emily I’m not sure we’d survive in such an enclosed space.”

“I’ve gone toe-to-toe with She-Ra and come out of it just fine,” Catra insisted. “I can handle anything.”

“Yeah, well She-Ra doesn’t have a killer instinct. Emily can smell fear. I programmed her to.”

Catra craned her neck back, eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“She already had an olfactory sensor for testing air particles. Adding the ability to detect pheromones wasn’t too hard.”

“Do you ever stop tinkering with things?”

“Nope.”

Tapping her foot in the darkness, Catra raised her eyes to the ceiling and waited. Entrapta pulled out her tape recorder.

“Day Twelve. Or was it Fifteen? This place really needs more windows, though that would compromise operational security. The artifact’s origins and intended purpose remain a mystery. It appears to be designed to overwrite other systems and replace them with its own. But why does it fill machines with so much hostility? Was it intended for sabotage against an enemy force, turning their own armaments against them? Or is the damage sustained by the crystal responsible for a degradation in code that—”

“Gah, enough! I don’t care what it’s for! I don’t even see what use it would be!”

Clicking off the tape recorder, Entrapta shrugged. “Well, like I said, you could sabotage an entire enemy network with it just by slipping it into one of their computers. If they rely on robots, you could turn their whole army against them as well. Although Brightmoon wouldn’t really be vulnerable to that kind of assault.”

“We would.”

“Exactly! Now aren’t you glad I isolated us from the rest of the network?”

“Not enough to enjoy being stuck in here with you.” She tapped a claw against her chin. “You mentioned the artifact infected She-Ra. How?”

“Through her sword, I think. It short-circuited her transformation and left her mostly incapacitated. Glimmer had to carry her around.”

A sly grin crept across Catra’s face. “That’s good to know.”

“There’s more. I’ve never gotten a close look at her sword, but it’s definitely First Ones’ tech. It shares a lot of properties with Runestones.”

“Yeah, I noticed that. That’s how she restored the Moonstone and all the other Runestones after that thing with the Black Garnet.” The smile grew wider. “Meaning if we got this thing in contact with the one of the other Runestones…”

Clasping her hands together, Entrapta jumped around excitedly. “That sounds _fascinating_! And potentially world-ending. But super exciting overall!”

“World-ending?”

“The Runestones keep the planet in balance. Infecting all of them could mean there’d be no world left to conquer. But it’s worth finding out!”

Catra blinked. “On second thought, using it to mess up She-Ra’s day is probably a better plan.”

“If you say so.” She quirked her lips to the side. “What’s the story with you and her anyway?”

“We grew up together,” she answered, glancing away. “Right here. Then the minute she got away from this place, she decided to leave it all behind.”

“Ooh, backstory! Can I record this?” Her hair hovered over a button on her tape recorder.

“No. But don’t worry about me. Her leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me. She was always Shadow Weaver’s favorite, but with Adora out of the way I was finally able to prove my worth to Lord Hordak. Adora always thought she had to protect me growing up, but she was just holding me back. Now that she’s gone, I’m stronger than ever.”

Entrapta squinted, then tilted her head to the side. “I kinda see what you mean. I only joined the Princess Alliance because I thought it would give me a chance to find out more about First Ones’ tech, but I learned more here than I ever did with them. I’m happy with where I’m at.”

“So am I.”

She turned around, leaning in and examining the currently lifeless computer. “Still, if you’re gonna bottle up all those feelings, you should figure out where to put them. Compartmentalizing is only healthy if you have an outlet for all the negative stuff.”

Catra blinked, taking a step back. “What? I’m not bottling anything up!”

“I may not interact with people much,” said Entrapta. “But I’ve spent a _lot_ of time observing them. If you don’t find somewhere to let all that fire out, eventually you’ll burn up.”

Lunging forward, she grabbed the Princess by the shirt and slammed her against the computer monitors. “Listen, you. I—”

She stopped short as the computer lit up, followed by the rest of the room. Ignoring her, Entrapta clapped her hands together excitedly. “Yay! We’re back online!”

Catra let go, and the Princess dropped down into her chair, clacking away at the keyboard like no time had passed. “Okay, no damage to core system files. Virus is contained and the crystal can be safely removed.” She did so with her hair, placing it back on the desk where it originally sat. The door opened, and Emily skittered inside, where Entrapta embraced the robot in a big hug.

“Finally.”

“You see? Once you lock up and throw away the negative parts, the whole system works better.”

Rolling her eyes, Catra walked out the door. “Just don’t kill all of us with that thing. Or at least give me a heads up first.”

“You got it!”

Marching through the hallway, Catra took the scenic route to her new quarters, passing by cadets and avoiding Scorpia. She wasn’t in the mood for her particular brand of cheeriness after the experience she’d just had. Finally, she crested a staircase and opened the door, collapsing on a bed that was entirely too large compared to what she was used to. After tossing and turning for a few minutes, she stood up, walking out to the balcony that looked over most of the Fright Zone.

Retrieving the paper from her pocket, she undid the crumpling as best she could, but it could never be perfect again. Not like it was before. She stared at it for a while, letting the memories wash over her, before crumpling it again and drawing her arm back, ready to hurl it over the balcony.

But she couldn’t.

Unrolling and flattening it out once again, she grabbed a small dagger from one of the shelves, and stabbed it through the paper, into the wall. It was the last thing she saw before she fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So after binging this show, I became possessed by this idea and had to let it out, which after several months of having to force myself to write felt really good. I've been having Catra feelings this whole week, so you all get to suffer too.


End file.
